IMC 2022: Sessions
Session 1720: Languages as Barriers, Languages as Bridges: Intra- and Inter-Lingual Negotiations across Boundaries in the Late Antique and Medieval Mediterranean, III - The City and Its Hinterland
Thursday 7 July 2022, 14.15-15.45
Sponsor: | National Science Centre, Poland / Uniwersytet Warszawski / Jacksonville State University, Alabama / University of Sheffield |
---|---|
Organisers: | Mirela Ivanova, Faculty of History, University of Oxford Paweł Nowakowski, Faculty of History, University of Oxford |
Moderator/Chair: | Mirela Ivanova, Faculty of History, University of Oxford |
Paper 1720-a | The Greek-Syriac Linguistic Divide as a Literary Construct: Bridging Barriers and Teaching Piety (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Language and Literature - Greek, Literacy and Orality, Religious Life |
Paper 1720-b | Syriac, a Monkish Thing?: Revisiting a Passage from John Chrysostom (Language: English) Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Epigraphy, Language and Literature - Greek, Monasticism |
Paper 1720-c | Languages in Contact at Hatra: A Textual and Archaeological Perspective (Language: English) Index terms: Archaeology - Sites, Epigraphy, Language and Literature - Other, Literacy and Orality |
Abstract | This session explores the linguistic divisions between inhabitants of large settlements of urban character (cities, towns, etc), and the population of rural areas in their immediate surroundings. Yuliya Minets focuses on the ways in which the Greek-Syriac linguistic divide was depicted in early Christian literature, in particular on the rhetorical 'usage' of speakers of Syriac as a pedagogical tool to herd the Greek-speaking urban and apparently corrupt audience to piety. Paweł Nowakowski revisits a sermon by John Chrysostom drawing a sharp linguistic division between the people of Antioch and their fellow villagers or ascetics from the wastelands. Ilaria Bucci discusses the linguistic situation at Hatra, to explore how what we know about linguistic diversity (Hatran and Palmyrene Aramaic, Greek, Latin) in the city can help us detect the presence of particular groups and better understand the contexts where language contact occurred. |